Notre Dame nursing course faces scrutiny over student placements

When Perth mother Sally's daughter announced she wanted to follow in her footsteps and become a registered nurse, she thought she was on a pathway to a great career.

"I'm a nurse myself, nursing's been really good to me, it's been an amazing career. I've had so many opportunities," Sally, whose surname has been withheld, told ABC Radio Perth.

When she asked around about nursing courses for her daughter, "Everyone said go to Notre Dame."

"They market themselves as superior because they get more prac than the other universities offer in Perth," Sally said.

"Day one, there was nowhere to sit in the lecture theatre. It was so full that there's kids on the floor, cross-legged."

Placement pressure

Due to a shortage of practicum placements for nursing students in WA, Sally's daughter is now about to travel to Sydney to get experience in a hospital there.

The university is paying for accommodation, but students are required to pay for their airfares.

Sally is one of a number of parents and students who have voiced concerns about the Notre Dame nursing course since the university abruptly halted new enrolments in February.

The university said it was to ensure the sustainability of the program.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) said while program was currently accredited, a review was underway.

Former Notre Dame staff have told the ABC they believe that Notre Dame has been enrolling too many students in its nursing courses, leading to difficulties in finding enough placements.

Students have to complete a minimum of 800 hours practical training in order to graduate.

According to federal education department student enrolment data, Notre Dame enrolled about 696 new nursing students in 2022, 980 in 2023, and 1,169 in 2024. Figures for 2025 were not available.

Another student, Chloe, whose surname has been withheld, told the ABC that her placements had been arranged but proved logistically challenging.

She was rostered to spend several weeks at Royal Perth Hospital, including a weekend, then was expected to be at Carnarvon Hospital, 890km north of Perth, the following Monday morning.

To get there on time, by car, she was advised by the university to call in sick to Royal Perth and spend the weekend driving to Carnarvon.

When she got there, she found that promised accommodation wasn't available and she spent the two-week placement living in a tent at the local caravan park.

She is still unsure whether she has completed enough hours this semester to graduate.

"I've contacted the university. It took me about four weeks to get a response from anyone."

In a statement, Notre Dame University said it provided 15,000 weeks of practicum placement for students each year, but acknowledged some students had had their practicum placements delayed.

"We absolutely understand students who feel frustrated or annoyed about being asked to delay their nursing practicum placement or being allocated a location that is not their first preference," the statement said.

"We have encouraged those students to get in touch with the practicum team and talk through their personal circumstances.

"The challenge for us as a university is that while demand for student enrolments in nursing has reached record highs in recent years, the number of available practicum places has not kept pace."

The university said overall nursing student numbers in WA had grown from 2,000 in 2014 to over 3,000 in 2024.

Call for statewide planning

Phill Della, a former WA chief nursing officer and now an emeritus professor of nursing at Curtin University, said universities must ensure they could provide placements in order for their courses to be accredited.

"Clinical placements are critical to make sure that our nurses graduate with the skills needed for our health system," Professor Della said.

"ANMAC, which registers all our nursing courses in Australia, sets that there must be a minimum of 800 hours, and they accredit your curriculum based on the university saying it can get that number of clinical hours in quality clinical placements with clinical supervision of the students."

While sending students interstate or to regional areas can address the shortage of placement spots in Perth, it can be difficult for many students.

"They may have a part-time job which they have to give up. They may have to pay rent or all of those other components," he said.

Professor Della favours a whole-of-state approach to allocating student placements, which would then allow universities to enrol the right number of students for placements available.

"When I was the chief nurse a number of years ago, we would say to the universities, we can afford to take about 1,000 students within the state, and that would then be worked with the heads of school or the deans of nursing, and that number would be set."

Uni staff unhappy

Scott Fitzgerald, the state secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, said Notre Dame staff were also deeply concerned about the problems at the university, and not just in the nursing school.

"A letter has been sent on behalf of staff at the university, with over 200 signatures, to the chancellor and board of directors," Dr Fitzgerald said.

"[The letter is] outlining the real concerns that staff have about the crisis of governance at Notre Dame, the decline in staff morale because of problems with courses such as nursing, and the precipitous decline in student satisfaction.

"The nursing program really epitomises the concerns, the problems with governance, the lack of consultation with staff, the lack of information, basic information, and that's putting pressure upon staff."

It i's another major crisis for Notre Dame University, which was hit by a ransomware attack in 2025.

That disruption to IT systems took months to resolve, with students and staff reporting uncertainty with graduations, finding classes, and submitting assignments.